World of Work Report Information Technology Sector Draft 1 Due Date: 30 May 2010 From: Enjood Salman A.Readha. ID Number: 20900126 To: English Tutor, Fatima Wali. Academic Skills Tutor, Roger Quinn. ICT Tutor, Larissa Grice. Introduction Purpose The purpose of this report is to learn how to write a report and find out more about the Information Technology (IT) sector in Bahrain. This report is going to discuss three IT occupations. The recommendations are to improve the skills gaps that Bahrain is facing in the IT sector and help students to be successful in the IT sector.
Terms of Reference This report is going to be read by Roger Quinn, Academic Skills tutor, Fatima Wali, English tutor and Larissa Grise, Information and Communication Technology tutor. The World Of Work Report is due on 17th June, 2010.
Methods The information that was used in this report was taken from an interview and paraphrasing academic information. This information was found by interviewing an HR or manager in IT sector, and the academic information was found from the Allen Report, Pro_quest website and Google sites. Findings Description of the IT Sector in Bahrain The Information Technology (IT) Sector incorporates the design, development implementations, and operations of any IT device or applications. The mutual purposes of IT are computers and network hardware and software (Allen Report). An interview was done with Mohammed Almaghrebi who is the Sales Account Manager in Kanoo IT. He stated that the "IT sector in Bahrain has been developing in the last 20 years" (Almaghrabi, 2010). Also, he mentioned that some international IT companies which have branches in Bahrain have joined some local companies to provide IT services like hardware and software. The kingdom of Bahrain is still a gainful market for technology products and services. The kingdom of Bahrain is benefiting from the trade liberalization, growing demand from the financial sector, the government IT and broadband initiatives. Bahrain is trying hardly to develop the IT Sector. One of the things that Bahrain has done is creating an e-government Solution Centre (www1). This report will discuss three different occupations. In addition, discussing the knowledge and the skills that are required of these occupations. Description of three occupations in the IT Sector The IT Sector is a wide sector. The IT Sector has got a lot of occupational groups such as: IT professionals, IT sales and marketing, IT customer care and contact centre and other technical posts including designer (Allen Report). An interview was done with a number of employees in Kanoo IT Company. After asking them about the three most likely occupations in the IT sector they stated that technical jobs like networking, security network and software development and design are the most required jobs at present (Almaghrabi, 2010). The first occupation is Network Engineer who is responsible to do installations, configurations and maintenance of the network information system. This kind of occupation requires technical skills such as certificates like MCSE, CCNA, CCNP, CCIE or CNE. Also, it requires Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Information Technology. In addition, the Network Engineer must have knowledge about some systems such as Windows, Cisco System or Linux. Also, he or she need to know about networking such as LAN, WAN, switches and routers (www2). The second occupation is Network System Security Specialist. A Network System Security Specialist is a person who works for an organization, install and manages the information security system which protects the organization computers from losing data. Also, the Network Specialist is responsible for security in the different branches. The qualifications that this occupation needs are the same requirements that a Network Engineer needs like the Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology and some certificates that can be considered in the field (www3). The third occupation is Software Development and Design Specialist. This occupation requires writing codes for software programs. This kind of occupation needs problem solving skills, knowledge of computer languages and the creativity to design programs that work for all users (www4). Identifying Skills Gaps in the IT Sector in Bahrain Skills gaps are the skills that organizations or workplaces need to become successful. The IT Sector divided the skills gaps into three different groups. The first group is the ICT management and coordination skills. The second group is related to certified software application technical skills. The third type of skills gaps is the IT strategy and planning skills (Allen Report). An Interview was done with an Kanoo IT company employee, Mohammed Almaghrabi. He pointed that the “IT Sector is a very wide sector. Each department in the IT Sector has more than one job to accomplish. Employees who come to work in the IT sector don’t have the ability and knowledge about these different jobs”. The second gap that he mentioned was security network qualifications. (Almaghrabi, 2010). Discussion of Two Skills Gaps in the IT Sector The first skills gaps that will be discussed are ICT management and coordination skills. New graduates have not got the ability to manage the work in an organization. That is why some organization are employing people from overseas because they have experience and they use them to train Bahraini. This is a waste of time for the organization, the foreign employee also for the fresh graduated student. The second skills gaps are certified software application technical skills. These skills need a person that can memorize numbers and writes codes to translate into a program so that they can be used in any computer. However, most Bahraini people either do not have the ability to do some programmes or their abilities are limited. That's why the Bahraini government and organizations bring foreign employees to do these kinds of jobs. Explaining Two Possible Causes of the Skills Gaps in the IT Sector in Bahrain One of the possible causes of the skills gaps in the IT Sector in Bahrain according to Mohammed Amaghrabi is that there are" no enough resources". That means that there are no enough qualified people in Bahrain. The IT sector needs people with high qualifications such as the Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology sector and other certificates that can be considered. Also, they need a person who has good attendance and punctuality. Most Bahraini students are not punctual", he adds (Almaghrabi, 2010). According to Mohammed Almaghrabi the second cause of skills gaps in the IT Sector in Bahrain is that "education and studying in Bahrain ". Bahrain education has been developed however; students get bored from the IT Sector quickly because it is hard to study and learn. Some students withdraw from the IT major into another major (Almaghrabi, 2010). Conclusion To sum up, the IT Sector in Bahrain is a wide and successful sector and it expands rapidly. This report identified the meaning of the IT Sector and three different main occupations in this sector. The occupations were a Network Engineer, Network Security System Specialist and Software Developer and Designer. These three occupations need at least the Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology and some technical skills. Also, this report discussed the main categories of the skills gaps in the IT Sector in Bahrain which are the ICT management and coordination skills, certified software application technical skills and IT strategy and planning skills. Also, this report shows the possible causes of these skills gaps. Recommendations The Bahraini Government should make some active strategies to solve the skills gaps problem. There are some suggestions that may be helpful to reduce the skills gaps in the IT Sector in Bahrain. The first suggestion is making some workshops for ICT student in Bahrain to show them their workplace for the future so that they can get used to it. The second suggestion is to provide technical equipments and components for the ICT students and make some conferences to help them explain the IT Sector widely. The last suggestion is to give out-standing scholarships to students or employees in Bahrain to study abroad and get experience from the foreign IT experts. The Bahraini government now is employing foreign tutors to teach Bahraini students and get the experience and knowledge from them. References 1. Allen Report. 2. Interview (Almaghrabi 2010) 3. www1 (www.theinnvestgroup.com/17.html) 4. www2 (www.technical-resumes.com/network-engineer-job-description/) 5. www3 (www.ehow.com/facts_5583775_network-specialist-job-description-salary.html) 6. www4 (www.ehow.com/video_4961497_software-developer-job-description.html)
World of Work Report
Information Technology Sector
Draft 1
Due Date: 30 May 2010
From: Enjood Salman A.Readha.
ID Number: 20900126
To: English Tutor, Fatima Wali.
Academic Skills Tutor, Roger Quinn.
ICT Tutor, Larissa Grice.
Introduction
Purpose
The purpose of this report is to learn how to write a report and find out more about the Information Technology (IT) sector in Bahrain. This report is going to discuss three IT occupations. The recommendations are to improve the skills gaps that Bahrain is facing in the IT sector and help students to be successful in the IT sector.
Terms of Reference
This report is going to be read by Roger Quinn, Academic Skills tutor, Fatima Wali, English tutor and Larissa Grise, Information and Communication Technology tutor. The World Of Work Report is due on 17th June, 2010.
Methods
The information that was used in this report was taken from an interview and paraphrasing academic information. This information was found by interviewing an HR or manager in IT sector, and the academic information was found from the Allen Report, Pro_quest website and Google sites.
Findings
Description of the IT Sector in Bahrain
The Information Technology (IT) Sector incorporates the design, development implementations, and operations of any IT device or applications. The mutual purposes of IT are computers and network hardware and software (Allen Report).
An interview was done with Mohammed Almaghrebi who is the Sales Account Manager in Kanoo IT. He stated that the "IT sector in Bahrain has been developing in the last 20 years" (Almaghrabi, 2010). Also, he mentioned that some international IT companies which have branches in Bahrain have joined some local companies to provide IT services like hardware and software. The kingdom of Bahrain is still a gainful market for technology products and services. The kingdom of Bahrain is benefiting from the trade liberalization, growing demand from the financial sector, the government IT and broadband initiatives. Bahrain is trying hardly to develop the IT Sector. One of the things that Bahrain has done is creating an e-government Solution Centre (www1).
This report will discuss three different occupations. In addition, discussing the knowledge and the skills that are required of these occupations.
Description of three occupations in the IT Sector
The IT Sector is a wide sector. The IT Sector has got a lot of occupational groups such as: IT professionals, IT sales and marketing, IT customer care and contact centre and other technical posts including designer (Allen Report).
An interview was done with a number of employees in Kanoo IT Company. After asking them about the three most likely occupations in the IT sector they stated that technical jobs like networking, security network and software development and design are the most required jobs at present (Almaghrabi, 2010).
The first occupation is Network Engineer who is responsible to do installations, configurations and maintenance of the network information system. This kind of occupation requires technical skills such as certificates like MCSE, CCNA, CCNP, CCIE or CNE. Also, it requires Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or Information Technology. In addition, the Network Engineer must have knowledge about some systems such as Windows, Cisco System or Linux. Also, he or she need to know about networking such as LAN, WAN, switches and routers (www2).
The second occupation is Network System Security Specialist. A Network System Security Specialist is a person who works for an organization, install and manages the information security system which protects the organization computers from losing data. Also, the Network Specialist is responsible for security in the different branches. The qualifications that this occupation needs are the same requirements that a Network Engineer needs like the Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology and some certificates that can be considered in the field (www3).
The third occupation is Software Development and Design Specialist. This occupation requires writing codes for software programs. This kind of occupation needs problem solving skills, knowledge of computer languages and the creativity to design programs that work for all users (www4).
Identifying Skills Gaps in the IT Sector in Bahrain
Skills gaps are the skills that organizations or workplaces need to become successful. The IT Sector divided the skills gaps into three different groups. The first group is the ICT management and coordination skills. The second group is related to certified software application technical skills. The third type of skills gaps is the IT strategy and planning skills (Allen Report).
An Interview was done with an Kanoo IT company employee, Mohammed Almaghrabi. He pointed that the “IT Sector is a very wide sector. Each department in the IT Sector has more than one job to accomplish. Employees who come to work in the IT sector don’t have the ability and knowledge about these different jobs”. The second gap that he mentioned was security network qualifications. (Almaghrabi, 2010).
Discussion of Two Skills Gaps in the IT Sector
The first skills gaps that will be discussed are ICT management and coordination skills. New graduates have not got the ability to manage the work in an organization. That is why some organization are employing people from overseas because they have experience and they use them to train Bahraini. This is a waste of time for the organization, the foreign employee also for the fresh graduated student.
The second skills gaps are certified software application technical skills. These skills need a person that can memorize numbers and writes codes to translate into a program so that they can be used in any computer. However, most Bahraini people either do not have the ability to do some programmes or their abilities are limited. That's why the Bahraini government and organizations bring foreign employees to do these kinds of jobs.
Explaining Two Possible Causes of the Skills Gaps in the IT Sector in Bahrain
One of the possible causes of the skills gaps in the IT Sector in Bahrain according to Mohammed Amaghrabi is that there are" no enough resources". That means that there are no enough qualified people in Bahrain. The IT sector needs people with high qualifications such as the Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology sector and other certificates that can be considered. Also, they need a person who has good attendance and punctuality. Most Bahraini students are not punctual", he adds (Almaghrabi, 2010).
According to Mohammed Almaghrabi the second cause of skills gaps in the IT Sector in Bahrain is that "education and studying in Bahrain ". Bahrain education has been developed however; students get bored from the IT Sector quickly because it is hard to study and learn. Some students withdraw from the IT major into another major (Almaghrabi, 2010).
Conclusion
To sum up, the IT Sector in Bahrain is a wide and successful sector and it expands rapidly. This report identified the meaning of the IT Sector and three different main occupations in this sector.
The occupations were a Network Engineer, Network Security System Specialist and Software Developer and Designer. These three occupations need at least the Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology and some technical skills. Also, this report discussed the main categories of the skills gaps in the IT Sector in Bahrain which are the ICT management and coordination skills, certified software application technical skills and IT strategy and planning skills. Also, this report shows the possible causes of these skills gaps.
Recommendations
The Bahraini Government should make some active strategies to solve the skills gaps problem. There are some suggestions that may be helpful to reduce the skills gaps in the IT Sector in Bahrain. The first suggestion is making some workshops for ICT student in Bahrain to show them their workplace for the future so that they can get used to it.
The second suggestion is to provide technical equipments and components for the ICT students and make some conferences to help them explain the IT Sector widely.
The last suggestion is to give out-standing scholarships to students or employees in Bahrain to study abroad and get experience from the foreign IT experts. The Bahraini government now is employing foreign tutors to teach Bahraini students and get the experience and knowledge from them.
References
1. Allen Report.
2. Interview (Almaghrabi 2010)
3. www1 (www.theinnvestgroup.com/17.html)
4. www2 (www.technical-resumes.com/network-engineer-job-description/)
5. www3 (www.ehow.com/facts_5583775_network-specialist-job-description-salary.html)
6. www4 (www.ehow.com/video_4961497_software-developer-job-description.html)